Small children have a surprisingly sophisticated ear for music, says Sam
Jackson, so don't just expose them to cheesy lullabies and Disney theme
tunes

Remember those halcyon days before you had kids, when you had complete control of whatever music you listened to?

In the car, you knew all your radio presets off by heart, and you were only ever a button-press away from your favourite CD. At home, you spent many a happy hour listening to your iPod shuffling away. And at work, even if the radio choices of your colleagues weren’t to your liking, you at least never had to listen to anything utterly nauseating (with the possible exception of Minnie Riperton’s Lovin’ You).

But since the arrival of children, everything’s changed. Ask any dad of a pre-schooler about the music he’s subjected to nowadays, and it’ll quickly become clear that nursery rhyme CDs supersede anything else on the car stereo. What’s more, you’ll be hard-pushed to find a 21st century dad who can’t sing you the theme tune to In the Night Garden or belt out the harmonies to every song from Frozen.

At least those two examples contain good tunes, though. The real problem for most parents comes when we have to stomach the many inane songs directed at children, complete with their super-saccharine lyrics (I’m looking at YOU, Barney the Dinosaur). So many of the lullaby toys for newborns contain tinny, out-of-tune melodies, or vocals performed by a woman who sounds as though she's insincerely smiling from ear-to-ear and thinking about the paycheque as she sings. Our kids may possibly enjoy this sort of thing – but you can be sure that their mums and dads rue the day they bought the damn things.

Despite what some marketeers may tell us, children do not benefit from listening to these twee tunes ad infinitum. It’s a great idea to play music to your child while he or she is still in the womb – but we should be feeding our kids a varied diet, even before they’re born. After around 24 weeks in utero, a developing baby can hear sounds, and if he or she listens to those same sounds post-birth, it can connect with them very deeply.

I’ve seen this first-hand with all three of my children: the best way to get my youngest daughter kicking in the womb was by playing Katy Perry’s Firework; now, aged 20 months, she still reacts to it with glee. My son, on the other hand, loves nothing more than listening to the ‘Sabre Dance’ from Khachaturian’s ballet Gayaneh, a full six and a half years after he first heard its percussive rhythms in the womb.

In my day job, I run Classic FM – so it’s no surprise that I’m a big believer in giving kids an early experience of classical music. Numerous studies have shown that playing classical music to children is beneficial: earlier this year, for example,the Telegraph reported on an Institute of Education study which showed that seven-year-olds who listened to Mozart and Beethoven displayed better concentration levels and social skills. And given what I do for a living, I was particularly interested to read about the recent launch of one particular initiative in France. A budding entrepreneur and dad-of-three has come up with a seemingly novel idea: called Radio Doudou, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a station broadcasting Gallic cover versions of Queen songs when it is, in fact, the first ever radio network for the under-fours. The man behind it, Julien Bocher, was so frustrated with the limited selection of music for babies, he decided to do something about it.

Here in the UK, we have something similar: the radio station FUN Kids, aimed at a broader audience of children, with an impressively eclectic playlist. I used to present the afternoon show there and on an average day, I’d be spinning the theme tune to Peppa Pig, followed by Noisettes’ Don’t Upset the Rhythm and a country music anthem from Hannah Montana: The Movie (bear in mind: this was quite a while ago, when Miley Cyrus had yet to discover twerking). If Radio Doudou is to be a success with French parents, it will have to offer a playlist that keeps its toddling target audience happy – but that also appeals to mums and dads. If the musical offering is one of incessant nursery rhymes and lullabies, even the most tolerant of parents will eventually reach for the off switch.

At the birth of "music" as we know it today, cavemen were banging sticks, beating drums, and making sounds together. Community was being built between the different players; but now, there’s a risk that many of the musical products aimed at our kids can only be tolerated by parents if they’re in a different room. Children can enjoy good quality, sophisticated sounds just as much as we do; we’re not doing them any favours if we only serve up the irritating music that already drives us dads mad. Making sure your children hear a wide variety of music, even before they take their first breath, is a wise step for any man to take. But take it from me: never, ever subject yourself or your child to “everyone’s favourite purple dinosaur” unless absolutely necessary.